Sports Q: Did the Bruins do enough at the NHL trade deadline?
It would have been nice to get David Krejci a highly skilled right wing.
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Did the Bruins do enough at the trading deadline? Nick Ritchie doesn’t seem to have the scoring punch that they could use. A little disappointed the Bruins didn’t’ get Chris Kreider from the Rangers, but there’s not much you can do when the team decides to re-sign someone for seven years. – Mike B.
Yeah, it would have been nice to get David Krejci a highly skilled right wing. But a 2011 version of Nathan Horton wasn’t out there, I guess. Nick Ritchie isn’t much of a scorer (his season-high is 31 points), but he’s a former top 10 pick, is just 24 years old, and should at least bring toughness. I bet he ends up being a pretty popular player at the Garden. Danton Heinen stagnated. I doubt he haunts them.
The price seemed pretty steep for Ondrej Kase – a first-rounder in 2020, former second-rounder Axel Andersson, and whatever David Backes might have left. Kase hasn’t been able to stay healthy for a full season and has seven goals and 23 points in 49 games this year, which isn’t exactly a vintage Cam Neely scoring pace. But he’s a very good skater and battles for the puck, so he should be a help in a secondary role.
It does seem like general manager Don Sweeney missed out on a few players he wanted – Kreider, Blake Coleman, maybe Ilya Kovalchuk. But I give him the benefit of the doubt based on recent deadline savvy. Marcus Johannson and Joakim Nordstrom didn’t seem like a huge haul last year, but they ended up being significant contributors on a team that reached the Cup Final. And I loved the boldness of the Rick Nash deal two years ago, though it didn’t work out quite as hoped.
So, no disappointment in the deadline. This is a great team as constituted. Just curious to see how the new guys fit.
What does everyone else think? Did the Bruins do enough at the trade deadline? I’ll hear you in the comments.
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